The Dark Sector
by Gate Keeper1073
Summary: When America pulls out of the XCOM Program, what will happen to it's citizens? What will they do to survive? See how a few try to live another day in the Dark Sector. Based on a personal play-through of XCOM:EU.


**Hello Everyone!**

 **My name is Gatekeeper and welcome to my new story!**

 **So I've always wanted to do a XCOM fanfic and this has been bouncing around in my head for a bit. The beginning was inspired by a playthrough of X-COM: Enemy Unknown I had where I was actually based in Africa and lost America due to a panic attack in America because of a poor quality of soldiers that were available. It was very frustrating at the time but after playing XCOM 2 I wondered what would really happen if America had been lost. This is going to be mainly based on a few pair of characters that I will cycle through in a sort of one-shot snapshots.**

 **For those of you more familiar with my previous stories based in the Sonic franchise, welcome back! I hope you find this enjoyable as well. If you are new to Fanfiction or myself as an author you can look at some of my other stories titled "Eggman finds a friend up North" and "Chance Encounters and Where They Lead"**

 **Just in fair warning I have said before and I'll say it again that I make no promises to upload regularly. However, I will not leave a fic abandoned and will do everything in my power to finish it at the very least.**

 **Rated T for more mature language, graphic descriptions of violence and gore and overloads of awesome**

 **If you have questions, concerns, wisecracks or suggestions either PM me or leave a review!**

 **Without further ado, enjoy!**

 **Sincerely, Gatekeeper**

 **X-COM: The Dark Sector**

 _Chapter One: The Beginning of the End_

" **Commander, The Council is… disappointed with your most recent progress. You are congratulated for stopping numerous alien activities, however we are most upset about your inability to prevent a wide spread attack on American soil. As such, The United States of America has decided to withdraw from the Council and forego any inclusion in the X-COM program. That is all Commander. And remember, we will be watching.**

The link closed off and a older man slumped down into a chair, trying to process the announcement. He shifted in his black dress uniform as a well of frustration grew inside him. In a burst of rage he bolted up from the chair and sweeped his hand across the desk, sending papers flying into the air.

"ONE DAY!" He bellowed. "ALL I NEEDED WAS ONE DAY AND THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!"

It was true, the panic attack on Milwaukee had come at the worst possible time. His A squad had been hit hard by a recent UFO recovery, most of them recovering from deep wounds, with his other top soldiers being outfitted at the newly opened Gene modification and psionics labs for testing.

When the call came from the Council all he had available for troops was Major Zhang or "Chilong" as the soldiers called him, a veteran sniper and four rookies. For most missions he could probably have scraped by with them even if it meant being too cautious to obtain the rare Meld substance both Shen and Vahlen had made it amply clear they wanted at all costs.

Most missions didn't have the Reaper's Spider, or Chryssalids, running around everywhere.

The rookies didn't stand a chance. As soon as they discovered the new alien breed when the first soldier had climbed onto the wrecked remains of a overarching highway above the AO he was torn to shreds. Seconds later, as gunfire poured into the first monster three more came from the other side of the collapsed highway. The retreat order came but not as fast as the Chrysalids did. Only because of a well placed rocket and a fantastic shot were the sniper and Chilong able to make it out alive, but not before they saw what happened to their comrades as they rose from the dead, eventually birthing the same hellish creature that killed them.

The debrief from that mission had been somber, to say the least.

And now, in addition to that failure the cumulation of a large focusing of X-COM's satellite deployment strategy had been lost. Located in Africa, The Commander knew that the response time it would take to get to the Americas was longer than acceptable, and had been focusing diligently on building aircraft and satellites to make up for the larger delay. In return, the North American council members had made a special deal to decrease all expenses on airplane and satellite costs when the entire region was covered.

With the United States backing out of the program, that deal was off.

Before he could continue to stew in his misery The Commander heard Central Officer Bradley's voice come over the loudspeaker.

 **Commander, there is an incoming call from a Council Member. Patching it in now. Central out.**

Sighing The Commander walked back to the large monitor stationed in the middle of his private office, standing at attention while waiting for the call to come through.

As soon as the locks cleared a voice could be heard from the speakers.

 **At ease Commander, this is an informal call.**

"Yes Mr. President sir!" The Commander relaxed, sighing softly. " _Just great"_ thought The Commander. " _Of all the Council to call, it had to be the one that just left."_

On the screen the President of the United States of America could be seen sitting in the Oval Office. He was a handsome man, and it could be readily seen that he almost radiated a peaceful aura. It was a small wonder that he had any competition in the election.

"To what do I owe the pleasure to, President Shaw?" Queried The Commander.

President Shaw chuckled. "Call me Abram, I hate titles. As you already know, I've decided to leave the Council. I wanted to clarify the reason why."

The Commander stood, puzzled by what he heard. "What do you mean Mr. President?"

Abram sighed. "You really are a stickler for formality aren't you Commander?"

"With all due respect Mr. President I have 15 heads of state as my commanding officers from across the globe, each with different customs, languages and traditions when it comes to military command. It took me, and pardon my French, a damn long time to get it all down. I'd rather appear too formal than be seen playing favorites."

The President looked impressed. "Seems fair enough. Moving on, I wanted to clarify on why I left the Council. The Milwaukee Incident had a large part to play in this decision, there is no doubt."

The Commander tensed up as he prepared for a wave of insults to be thrown at him.

The President continued. "However, the decision to leave was not based on your team's effort or your own abilities. In fact, your performance not only at the Milwaukee Incident but other past missions was one of the greatest supports for staying in the program."

The Commander was shocked. The President's decision to leave wasn't based on the team's efforts? But they had failed! Miserably at that!

"Permission to speak freely Mr President?" The Commander asked.

"Permission granted, Commander." Replied Abram.

"Mr. President I'm not sure I understand your statement sir. Would you elaborate?" stated The Commander.

"Sure thing. As you know, The Council receives a report on the success of your mission as well as a video recording of the event. And I must say, I was beyond impressed by your skill. You've made proverbial wine out of water on many a mission, so no one could possibly fault your abilities nor those of your soldiers."

The Presidents face turned hard. "I should say the failure lies with my nation, or what I fear is happening. My country values freedom and equality above all, even if we continue to stumble with the practical application of it."

The President looked around, as if checking to see if he was truly alone.

"I fear that there are those who sympathize with the aliens, and I cannot stop their discussions. We've been receiving reports of civilians passing out flyers for a group called EXALT and it's becoming increasingly popular. None of our undercover agents have reported back from going to one of their meetings and there are no uploaded videos of a meeting on the internet. Not. One. That's beyond worrying. I can't allow for one of them to find out about XCOM. Undoubtedly they would do anything to take it down."

He sighed. "So the long and short of it is, I backed out because I am afraid I will be compromised in short order. It's a shame too, I've always wanted to share a drink with you after this whole thing passed."

The Commander smiled, a small almost imperceptible smile that was filled with sorrow. "I'd like that. Thinking over the statement he just heard the Commander began to frown. "Mr. President there's no reason you can't leave now. You are a very popular figure and if you get harmed it could weaken the morale of other leaders around the world, not to mention the rest of the Council."

"And abandon my post, Commander? No." Said The President icily. "Even if my life is in danger I can't leave the people. They need someone to stop this menace and if I don't stay who will?"

The Presidents stare softened and he sighed gently. "My apologies Commander, I see your side. However I promised I would be here for the people and I will keep it that way." He smiled again, "A Captain must go down with his ship, no?"

"That's a damned foolish saying and we both know it Mr President." scowled the Commander.

The President laughed. "It really is, but I'll say it all the same."

The President saluted "Well Commander, I'll leave you to it. Vigilo Confido."

The Commander returned it. "Vigilo Confido, may we meet again."

The screen turned black.

The Commander turned towards his desk, and started picking up the strewn papers. Once he managed to get them shuffled together he plopped then on his desk while plopping himself in his chair. Quickly undoing his collar he reached into a not-so-secret secret compartment and grabbed the hidden bottle of Scotch and two glasses. He set them on the table before pushing his intercom button.

"Central Officer Bradley, report to the commander's quarters post haste. Commander out." He stated calmly. One of the hardest things he had when transitioning to the post of Commander was curbing back on his voice when he called for people. At first they appeared like they had been dropped down to hell and brought before the devil himself when he called them up. That was before he got used to the fact that landlubbers didn't use quite as colorful language as his old crew did when they talked.

He poured the Scotch into the two glasses, though he knew Bradley wouldn't drink it. It was more of a courtesy than anything, and he definitely needed the second glass tonight. He picked up a glass as he waited for Bradley to show up.

Soon the door opened revealing the sweater-clad officer. Bradley saluted the Commander briefly. "Sir, you requested my presence?"

"At ease Bradley. Scotch?" The Commander picked up the other glass and offered it. Bradley shook his head before pulling up a chair and sitting down facing the Commander.

There was a long pause as the Commander stared into his drink, swirling around the ice as he thought of how to approach the situation.

"The United States has backed out of the Council Bradley." said The Commander with a sigh. "but it isn't because of Milwaukee. President Shaw thinks that there's a possible security breach in his network and believes his best course is to quarantine his nation from the Council to avoid a leak."

"Well then it's a shame Commander but that sounds like a good enough reason as any to withdraw." Said Bradley calmly.

"Well it's not a good enough reason to let him die alone then!" snapped the Commander. "seriously, the nerve of some people! Does he really think that I'm just going to lie down and let this happen?"

The Commander looked at Bradley, who was trying to comprehend the commander's change in attitude, said "... No?"

"Well you're right, and for future reference that was a rhetorical question." Said the Commander.

"Yes sir." replied Bradley.

The Commander got up again, this time pacing back and forth while thinking furiously.

"You see Bradley, the problem with President Shaw's course of action is that we lose all ability to look into this EXALT situation firsthand. Plus if he does, God forbid, end up dead we won't be able to stop his replacement from being controlled by them or gaining infinitely more resources. We either pray that he can contain the situation or do everything we can to prepare for a alien-allied world power to come into play soon. Tell me Bradley, what are the logistics on that?"

Bradley did a few calculations and thought before his eyes went wide. "It would be grim. We'd have to extract all of the family members of the soldiers and staff here, to avoid mutiny and desertion along with possible details being leaked, and there isn't any real place here or in Africa in general to keep them safe or contained. Not to mention if family members themselves are converted to this EXALT cult. We'd be bringing in the enemy right to our back door, potentially."

The Commander nodded. "Exactly, much like what happened to Leonidas against the was able to contain them because of a strategic location, we are able to contain them because they can't afford to be noticed right now by an entire planet. If they can gain a foothold here through this cult, they'd be getting their secret passage right to us. And we would be decimated, not a doubt about it. Our best defense is how unknown we are to them right now."

"So what do we do, Sir? It's not like we can force President Shaw to come to us." said Bradley

"True, but we can give him the tools he needs to survive. Shaw is one of those people that work better when they are left alone in the tool shop so to speak, but if he can't live to make his plans work he's useless." reasoned the Commander

"That's a little harsh don't you think? Wasn't he a Sergeant in the U.S. Army before he ran for President?" Bradley pointed out.

"And how many sergeants do we have come into the Program as rookies? His experience will only kick in after he's had time to re-adjust to his new reality. Until that time we need a inside man, or woman in this case, to get him ready." explained the Commander

"Woman, you already have someone in mind Commander?" queried Bradley

"Yes, I didn't survive hunting Somali pirates thinking slowly. Get me Wildcat from the crew quarters, in her best office attire. We need to work on her secretary skills before we ship her out."

"Wildcat? Secretary skills?" Bradley struggled to follow the Commanders logic.

"I know, I never thought I'd never say those words in the same breath either. But she's our best for the job. Skilled enough to survive and carry the rookies if needed, but not so ingrained as to lose touch with American culture or her sense of normalcy." elaborated the Commander

"Sir I'm not sure I follow what you are saying." Bradley confessed

"That's fine Bradley, I'm slightly mental anyway. Basically, President Shaw's secretary was on holiday in Milwaukee when the attack happened. We are going to assure that Wildcat is the first, best and only applicant that makes it to President Shaw's desk to replace him."

"Oh. I see now." said Bradley

The Commander came by and pat his arm. "Don't worry. Happens to everyone. Go get Wildcat. Do you know if she drinks Scotch?" he asked

"I've seen her at the bar with some whiskey. A whole bottle of it." replied Bradley

The Commander whistled. "In that case get me a bottle from Jordan as well, please."

"Yes Sir, right away." Bradley saluted and left.

The Commander sat down in his chair and put his feet up, his mood lifted significantly. He began to wait. Not even 5 minutes later a drone flew in and dropped off a bottle of Jack Daniels that he stowed away for after the initial meeting.

A quarter hour later he put them down again as he heard a knock on the door and went to his most dignified Commander pose, his back straight and his fingers steepled as he waited for his target to approach.

"Enter!" He called authoritatively.

A woman in a black office dress and modest tan heels stepped out of the elevator, a wildcat print jacket on her shoulders. Instantly she snapped to attention. "Sir, reporting for duty!" she said.

"At ease, soldier. Sit down." She quickly took a seat across from his desk.

"Sgt. Emily Hartwood, this meeting is of great importance. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is this…" The Commander began as he described the outline of her new duties

The Commander cheered in his mind. _God I've always wanted to do that._


End file.
